I recently had the fun opportunity of redesigning an outfit inspired by the 2012 Olympics for a article in the Star Tribune. There has been so much talk about Ralph Lauren's Olympic gear so it was a great idea by Sara Glassman (style writer for Star Tribune) for local designers to do the same. See below for the Ralph Lauren Sketch's and image of Opening Ceremony Outfits.
Ralph Lauren sketch of 2012 Olympic Outfits
Ralph Lauren Opening Ceremony Attire
There was not any specific direction from Sara other than our interpretation of how we would redesign the Olympic outfits if we had the opportunity. For me, the first thing that came to mind was redesigning the tennis outfits. I love to design dresses and having past experience designing figure skating outfits I thought it would be easy to translate. I enjoyed playing around with different ideas of how I would change things if I could. Here are a few images of what tennis dresses look like today:
Dresses by Nike, Polo and Adidas
The current designs are very simple with slim to full skirts, mostly solid color and not a lot of pattern. For my design I wanted to incorporate a few fashion trends while still keeping the dress functional. Here are some images of the trends I wanted to inlude below.
I loved the faded coloring of this American flag. I do a lot with fabric dying so I thought it would be an interesting way to incorporate it into a tennis dress. I also love peplum dresses (dress pictured by Alice and Olivia) and square shoulder tops (dress pictured by ASOS)
This is where my final sketch landed. I played around with watercolor pencils which was a new technique for me. Unfortunatley it did not pick up the white stripes and stars like I had intended but overall I was happy with how it turned out.
In my design, the shoulders are squared off and have more shape than the current dresses. I also included a double layer peplum skirt which we have been seeing a lot of in the runway. In the end I wanted to have a design that was wearable but pushed the boundaries of what we see on the court today.
Here is the full article in the Star Tribune by Sara Glassman:
Anticipation is building for the Olympics, when the world will be watching Team USA in uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren. The combo of blue blazer and white skirt or trousers, shown above, seems classically stylish to some, but downright dull to others.
"They should be more fun," said local designer Lindsey Hopkins.
Designer Marissa Bridges agreed: "Right now they are pretty basic," she said. "There's an opportunity to incorporate more trends while still keeping them functional.
To host our own fashion Olympics, we asked Hopkins, Bridges and three other Minnesota designers how they would improve on what the American athletes should wear for their international appearances.
Here is the full article in the Star Tribune by Sara Glassman:
Anticipation is building for the Olympics, when the world will be watching Team USA in uniforms designed by Ralph Lauren. The combo of blue blazer and white skirt or trousers, shown above, seems classically stylish to some, but downright dull to others.
"They should be more fun," said local designer Lindsey Hopkins.
Designer Marissa Bridges agreed: "Right now they are pretty basic," she said. "There's an opportunity to incorporate more trends while still keeping them functional.
To host our own fashion Olympics, we asked Hopkins, Bridges and three other Minnesota designers how they would improve on what the American athletes should wear for their international appearances.
It was fun to see how the other designers incorporated the challenge, with all of us having a different point of view. Even though these probably won't make it into the Olympics anytime soon, hopefuly the outfits in the future continue to evolve and incorporate new materials and design.
RSS Feed